A New Crime Wave of Identity Theft: Is Your Child in Danger?

I'll keep saying it to anyone who will listen - ID Theft of our children's identities will be one of the fastest growing crimes in our country. Take a look at this article:

Olivia McNamara was starting her freshman year at Vanderbilt University when she applied for her first credit card.

“I was applying to get a student credit card the summer before I came to college, and I was denied from the first credit card company that I applied to,” said McNamara.

After being rejected twice, she did some digging and found that someone had stolen her identity and had run up massive debt – to the tune of $1.5 million.

“I can’t even describe it,” she told ABC News. “It’s just really shocking and we just had no idea.”

What was even more shocking to McNamara and her family was that the crime had started when she was 9. Someone had stolen her Social Security number and set up false identities and more than 42 accounts. All of them had defaulted.

“They took loans out on boats and houses and everything,” McNamara said.

Months after uncovering the crime, McNamara is still working to clear her credit. She still faces being rejected if she applies for a credit card or student loan or tries to rent a car or a house.

“I don’t know why this happened to me,” she said. “It’s been very frustrating, very difficult for us to fix, and we don’t really know how this is gonna affect me in the future.”